Southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region expects to host 1.21 million tourists this year, up 30 percent from last year.

The plateau region is also hoping to score a rise of 30 percent in tourism revenue, said Zhang Wansheng, director of the Tibet Autonomous Regional Tourism Bureau, who set this year's tourism earnings at 1.3 billion yuan (about US$157 million).

Zhang promised to work out more tourism programs with special features and step up promotions to meet the targets set for this year.

Tibet, dubbed as the "roof of the world," played host to 928,639 tourists from home and abroad last year, a year-on-year rise of seven percent, and raked in 1 billion yuan (about US$121 million) in tourism earnings, up 5 percent.

Currently, Tibet has over 100 tourist destinations, 45 travel agencies and 128 hotels for overseas visitors. 

(People's Daily January 16, 2004)